Hunger Games - After Death
by chocoholic1117
Summary: It's the 100th Hunger Games and this time the quell has a twist, a dark days invention that has the power to restate the heart and brain giving the person life is being used in the Games. So when twins Nick and Mel get reaped they think they have it perfect.One of them kills themselves and then they come back to life when the Capitol says their killers blood must be made their own.


Hunger Games After Death- Chapter 1

Mel sat in the tree and watched her twin surface from the river expecting a wild round of applause to be greeted by an empty forest. She smiled as Nick brushed his wet chocolate brown hair out of his eyes so that it stuck to his forehead, his hazel eyes showed worry for a second and combined with his dark skin he almost faded into the mud by the river bank. He looked around once before looking up to her and making the face that said _why_? Mel knew that look well; every time she looked in the small mirror in their house she saw it.

Why?

Why do I look like I do? An exact replica to my brother, so that every time people see us they take a moment to decide which twin is which.

Why do I live in District 7? 7 where there is nothing but trees, shacks and Peacekeeper brought misery.

Why am I 15? Eligible for the reaping but with little chance of living. A chance that slowly increases with age until I was 19, like my sister Bell, and free of the fear and tension.

Why is my life so shit?

"Mel come down. How am I supposed to show you my epic skills of awesomeness if you're up a tree?" Mel shrugged.

"I didn't know you had epic skills of awesomeness to begin with. When did you develop those?" he made a face at her and then climbed out of the river to the tree she was up. He reached the branch where he had put his T-shirt and pocket watch, his most prised possession, and glared up at her.

"Where's my clothing?" He demanded.

"I dunno." Mel replied.

"Do you want me to go to the reaping naked?" he asked raising his eyebrow and Mel had to resist the urge to laugh in his face and say that would make some girls day. She knew her brother was an object of desire for almost every girl in school, with his good looks, worked muscles, romantic nature that made him treat every girl like she was his and then break her heart. Mel knew he liked at least one of them; she had walked in on him staring at his bedroom wall on several occasions, a wishful look on his face that would vanish along with a small photograph that she never got to see. She also knew that if she made an effort and grew her hair, wore a short skirt and occasionally pulled her head out of the mountain of knowledge she was slowly bearing herself in, she could get the boys like Nick could get the girls. But she didn't.

She didn't want to be like her best-friend-turned-mortal-enemy Willow Poplar who chucked away her friends to 'get a life', reviled as much skin as she possible could until the teachers at school banned her from the fear at she eventually would come naked. Spent hours collecting materials to highlight her long blond hair because she couldn't afford the Capitol version and spend most of her family money on buying boys to sleep with her. Mel knew this was true as the rumours had been confirmed when she asked Nick, who she though was worth triple other boys, who, like the heart breaker he was, turned her down ran off and was found snogging somebody else 5 minutes later.

So instead she called.

"You're wearing underwear aren't you?" He rolled his eyes and Mel laughed. "Here." She threw down his top and shorts before climbing down the tree. She checked Nick's watch as he got changed.

"We've got twenty minutes." He nodded and attached the watch chain to his shorts pocket.

"Let's get going."

They arrived with five minutes to spare. It was only after they signed in that Mel's nerves started to kick in and spent the five minutes fidgeting with her shirt collar with one hand and clutching her lucky coin in her trouser pocket with the other. It wasn't really a coin, just wood and crafted by her father for her latest birthday, it had a small loop at the top encase she ever wanted to attach it to a chain to make it necklace or something. It was engrained with the words 'I will always be there for you' on one side and a small picture of a star on the other. The morning star the symbol of hope and guidance. It wasn't much but it gave her hope and guidance and luck.

She needed all of them today.

Finally the five minutes were up and the mayor stood up to give some speech about how generous the Capitol is and how lovely and then about the dark days and the beginning of the Hunger Games. Then he handed over to District Sevens very own Emil Bisset the bubbly escort who was most certainly gay. His real name was Aemilius but he insisted on being called Emil, nobody really cared but called him whichever. His hair was a toxic green and his clothing the type you could only get in the Capitol. The only kind part of him was his eyes, a soft green, he was sympathetic, apparently he was forced into the job, Mel had never believed that until he pulled out his first twelve year old, one of Bell's friends, the look on his face never made her doubt again.

"Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the 100th annual Hunger Games or the Fourth Quarter Quell." He paused for a second and his beaming smile falters slightly as nobody said a word. "As you know the quell offers a change in the games and being the 100th there is a difference." He continued, beaming again. "To show the Capitols generosity an invention designed in the dark days has been brought to life and the Capitol is willing to use it for a fun filled games. This invention has the power to restart the heart and brain giving the person life; this is only temporary if by the end of twenty four hours the tribute brought back to life has not used the given instrument to take their killers blood they will die again and there are no second chances. Of course if you die in the bloodbath or of a natural death these will not apply it is only if you die after because of course you can't take the life of the cold that killed you." There was a small laugh from a few of the cameramen, but everybody else was too nervous to laugh. Mel glanced over to the boys to see that Nick was doing the same thing, they shared a look and then Nick went back to looking at Emil while Mel scanned the crowd for her parents.

It took her a moment to find them, they were standing together with her sister Bell; Bell was Mel's opposite. She had their mothers blond hair and pale skin and their father's electric blue eyes, she was girly and pretty and had managed to escape the forest by being a personal assistant to the mayor since the age of 14, and it didn't help others that the twelve year old tribute who was Bell's friend was his daughter. She saw Mel looking and gave her a thumbs up while her parents looked on at the giant reaping balls with disgust. Mel was jolted back to where she was by Emil finishing his speech.

"So for the lovely ladies first." He put his hand in and swirled it around before picking out a name. Mel looked at that and in the seconds it took him to open the slip she thought about the 12 slips of paper that had her name on 4 because she had to and 8 for tesserae, 2 slips each year. 1 for her and 1 for her mother, while Nick had 1 for him and 1 for their father, while Bell had tesserae for herself and all of them until the twins reached twelve and then insisted that she could make enough money to support herself through her job. Nick had exactly the same odds as her in the boys and compared to some of the others in District 7 they had few, while compared to others they had loads.

Mel twisted her coin in her pocket and closed her eyes whishing beyond anything that she wasn't picked. Her mouth was just forming the word please when Emil read out the name on the slip.

"Melody Birch." Her eyes flew open in shock and she stared at him, then her eyes travelled to Nick who was staring at her with utter disbelief on his face. She shook her head at him knowing what he was going to do and walked out of the 15 year old section to the stage, forcing a small smile on her face and hoping beyond hope that she wasn't going to spontaneously burst into tears and collapse in front of the entire nation. She pulled her hand out of her pocket and remembered that hoping beyond hope didn't work so well before. When she reached Emil she had a mind blank on what tributes were supposed to do. She held out her hand and Emil shook it.

"Hi." He nodded.

"How do you do Melody?" she smiled at him and he relished her hand and she turned to the crowd. "Any volunteers?" He called, nobody moved, but she could tell from the look on Bell's face that if she was a year younger she would be up on the stage at that moment. Emil walked over to the boys and picked out a name. He walked back over to Mel and she whispered.

"Not Nick." But her words were caught by the microphone and dimly projected. Emil glanced at her and then opened the slip; he stared at it for a second before looked back at Mel. He gulped.

"Nicholas Birch." There was a cry from the crowd and Mel saw her mother fall backwards into her father's arms. Nick walked up on stage and smiled at her.

"Hi." He said holding out hand in an imitation of Mel. She was grateful, it made her gesture seam less different. Emil shook it, and smiled tightly at him.

"Volunteers?" Nobody moved again. "Would you please give it up for District Sevens Melody and Nicholas Birch. Shake hands." He added for them. They looked at each other and then threw their arms around each other's necks. After a few seconds they broke apart, and waved at the crowd who were deathly silent. Then Emil led them into the justice building and into a visitor room, where they both promptly fell onto the chairs there and waited for their family to arrive.


End file.
